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• As Baranovichi, Byelorussia fell to the Soviets, German XII Corps surrendered its last 57,000 men. The German Armeegruppe Mitte alone had lost nearly 30 divisions in less than a month. ww2dbase [Operation Bagration | TH]
• British Second Army launched Operation Charnwood against Caen, France. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 1 | TH]
• Jewish ghettos in Kovno, Lithuania began to be evacuated by German authorities. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Allied bombers conducted a raid on Belgrade, Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Takeo Takagi was killed in action on Saipan, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Takeo Takagi | CPC]
• Chuichi Nagumo was posthumously promoted to the rank of admiral. ww2dbase [Chuichi Nagumo | CPC]

• Wing Commander Bill Deas, Commanding Officer of No. 630 Squadron of the British Royal Air Force, was killed in a disastrous raid on a V-bomb storage dump at Saint-Leu-d'Esserent, France. His was one of 29 aircraft lost when the force was intercepted by German night fighters. He was on his 69th operation. ww2dbase [Saint-Leu-d'Esserent, Picardie | AC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against a railroad bridge near Amiens, France but returned without bombing due to weather. ww2dbase [RAF Thurleigh | Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | Amiens | DS]

• Raoul Wallenberg landed at Tempelhof, Berlin, Germany and traveled to his sister's residence in the southwestern suburb of the city. He would experience his first air raid during that night. ww2dbase [Raoul Wallenberg | Berlin | CPC]

• Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi withdrew the remnants of the Japanese 33rd Division from Imphal, India back into Burma. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Imphal, Manipur | TH]

• Yamato departed Kure, Japan for Okinawa, Japan with the 106th Infantry Regiment of the 49th Division on board. ww2dbase [Yamato | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]
• Landing ship No. 159 was launched. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]

• Lieutenant General Haruki Isayama was named the chief of staff of the Taiwan Army. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Haroki Isayama was made the Chief of Staff of Japanese Army's Taiwan Army. ww2dbase [Haruki Isayama | CPC]

• Air Group 80 and ship's crew in support of the air group aboard USS Ticonderoga were given a day's rest while off Trinidad. ww2dbase [Ticonderoga | Albert O. Vorse, Jr. | DS]

• A V-1 bomb landed and exploded on Greenwich Police Station in London, England, United Kingdom; several people were trapped in the wreckage of the West London station, no deaths occurred. However, an early arriving bomb killed 6 people in Oakdale Road, Streatham, south west London. Polish pilot, Flying Officer Tadeusz Karnkowski, 316 (Polish) Squadron, after shooting down two V-1 bombs tried to tip over a third with his wing tips, the manoeuvre was successful but also damaged his Spitfire fighter and he was forced to crash land on the runway at RAF West Malling. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | London, England | HM]

• Franklin Roosevelt and Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd visited Shangri-La (now Camp David) near Thurmont, Maryland, United States. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | Maryland | CPC]

8 Jul 1944 Interactive Map